Energy transmission by means of power cables is of particular importance applied in densely populated areas and when passing over stretches of open water. In densely populated areas land values, reliability and aesthetic factors have great importance whereas for passage over open water the costs of building large number of pylon foundations is what steers the choice towards cable solutions. The problem with extending existing transmission cable installations is principally with generation and transport of reactive power. The risks of resonance problems for very long cable connections as a result of harmonics in the power network also needs to be reduced. Losses due to currents induced in the cable screen can also affect the maximum transmission length for cable circuits.
With shorter transmission cable circuits of less than, say 50 km, shunt compensation is used in order to compensate for the cable losses due to capacitive generation effects. Sometimes an additional dynamic compensation in the form of SVC, Static Var Compensation, is required. The shunt compensation devices are usually installed at both ends of the cable. There are also examples of installations where shunt compensation devices are installed at several places along the cable. AC transmission cables circuits longer than approximately 50 km or so only exist for low voltage levels (typically<100 kV) and low power (<100 MVA). High voltage direct current (HVDC) installations are today used almost exclusively for long power cable transmission circuits.